“Every flight
sends me back to
checking every
screw and nut, hinge
bolts, brace wires,
the works. Being the
builder helps—a lot,”
he said.
Instructor Curt Brown
briefs rookie Scott Krause.
RIGH T: Guillermo Parodi
(right) and crew chief
Alvaro Navas came to
Reno from Spain to race
their Cassutt. Guillermo
will be the first Spaniard
to compete in the races.
“Beyond assuring that the plane is
current on its inspections and airworthiness directives, our tech inspectors
look for deviations from the type.
“That just gets their planes into the
program,” explained Curt Brown, the
lead jet instructor. “From that point on
the crew chiefs and the pilot have to
keep the airplane in race-suitable con-
dition, including whatever post-flight
maintenance that’s required.”
Several of the Jet Class pilots esti-
mate their costs at between $20,000 and
$30,000 for the week, including PRS
fees, formation training, food, room, and
“lots and lots of fuel,” Scott said.
At the other end of the scale, a
for-sale Cassutt Formula One racer
carried a $25,000 price tag with
racing costs of about $25 an hour,
according to Alvaro, the crew chief
for N-A-Rush.
Crew chiefs can be a factor that
helps pilots progress, something both
Guillermo and Scott took advantage
of to help them prepare the plane for
each flight and check for any maintenance needs in between; for Austin,
the work was all on him.
DAILY BRIEFS &
DEBRIEFS
Every morning of
PRS, as the clock
nears 7: 30 a.m.,
“Shifty” Peairs, air
boss for the seminar, prepares for the
first of two daily pilot
briefings. Nobody
flies without attending a briefing and
signing in—nobody.
His smartphone
at hand, a screen shot displaying the
briefing title, Shifty chats amiably
with instructors and pilots as they
and their crew members file into a
windowless room in the back of the
RARA hangar.
“Okay, let’s get started,” Shifty
said, watching for the group to settle
into their seats and focus on him and
his PowerPoint-driven briefing.
A briefing at 8: 30 for Jet,
Unlimited, T- 6, and Sport classes follows the Formula One and Biplane;
though much overlaps, each group’s
briefing is tailored to any issues specific to its class, its course, or its
issues from the day prior.
Weather (of course), flight condi-
tions, course issues, runway use, and
noteworthy problems or mistakes
make it into the briefing. A mistake
on runway use, issues with tran-
sient and non-seminar traffic using
the main runway, reminders of some
basic procedures, reinforcement of
the open access in the event of an
emergency, resolutions of a gear-up
landing the morning before, reinforce-
ment of the taxiway procedures, and
the non-movement area—over the
course of the seminar Shifty, a retired
Navy aviator, keeps the briefings to the
point, relaxed…but deadly serious.
TIME TO FLY
To fly at Reno—no, to race at Reno—
looks easier than it feels.
Racers speed often wingtip-to-wingtip around a pylon-defined
course at almost exactly a mile above
sea level but often less than 100 feet
above the high-desert landscape as
it rises and falls below the aircraft,
irregularly but repeatedly, every lap.
Race heat starts require pilots to
line up wingtip-to-wingtip off a pace
plane. Scott expressed a bit of amazement at the workload of even a mock
race. “When we’re flying the course
there’s just so much to track: the airplane instruments, engine stuff, the
other airplanes, the terrain, your speed…
the terrain…it’s a lot to do and not get
